A savings fund, housing loans, expenses for recreation and bonuses, scholarships for children, and restaurant services for employees of the state and the monopolist hydrocarbons distributor of Costa Rica, are financed through the prices paid by consumers, even by the poorest.

Alba Petróleos de El Salvador, daughter company of PDVSA, is no longer importing from Venezuela the fuel it sells in the country, doing so instead from the United States.

EDITORIAL

Removal of market rules in order to achieve political objectives, always has an inevitable expiration date.This is what is happening with the alleged exportation of the so-called Bolivarian revolution, through Venezuela's contribution of oil and its derivatives to economies with apparently similarly minded governments.While it is true that the current Maduro government still has the loyalty in diplomatic terms of some Latin American and Caribbean governments, which has prevented his condemnation through international organisms, in the economic sphere relations with these allies are cooling off without remedy.

The Constitutional Court has temporarily suspended the environmental license granted to the 40 MW Rocja Pontilá hydroelectric project located in Cobán, Alta Verapaz.

The Court's decision is based on a case filed by members of the communities in the area near the lagoon of Lachúa, who argue that the Ministry of Environment granted permission to develop the project "anomalously."

The Constitutional Court has authorized the continuation of operations of the Oxec I and II Stations for a period of 12 months, while consulting indigenous peoples in the area.

The Constitutional Court unanimously dismissed the appeals filed by the Ministry of Energy and Mines and representatives of Oxec I and II and resolved to authorize resumption of operations for only 12 months. The decision comes more than two months after the Court ratified the suspension of operations, for allegedly not consulting indigenous peoplesin the area before starting the projects.

The stagnation of the refinery project could be the reason for China's loss of interest in Costa Rica, after having stopped the disbursement of a $24 million "freebie", the purchase of $1 billion worth of Costa Rican bonds, the development of an industrial pole, and the extension of a road.

The state run oil company in Costa Rica registered losses above $24 million during the first nine months of 2015, despite having the highest prices in the region.

In the first nine months of 2015 the Costa Rican Oil Refinery lost more than $24 million. The state run company, which has had a monopoly in refining and sale of fuels in Costa Rica for more than half a century, has payroll costs representing 56% of its total expenditure.

The lack of high-level strategic coordination in the affairs of the state run power company has led to a multi million dollar law suit whose costs will be paid for by all Costa Ricans.

An article in Nacion.com reports that in March 2015 the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) informed the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) that a multi million dollar loan for the construction of a large hydroelectric power station on the river Reventazón, was conditional on the water of the River Parismina not being used, in the same basin or above it, by other hydroelectric plants. Three months later, on June 4, the ICE pledged to buy energy from the Desarrollo Hidroeléctrico de Parismina S.A. (DHPSA), electricity that would be generated by a 20 MW hydroelectric plant to be built on the eponymous river. And just four days later, on June 11, the state power formalized with the IDB its commitment to not allow power stations on the Parismina river.

Generadora del Istmo has denounced the political nuance given in the case and the sanction imposed after the government lifted the suspension of the project.

From a statement issued by Genisa:

After the Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente) maintained a suspension for eight (8) months of construction of the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project, it has resolved to lift the suspension, but imposed on Generadora del Istmo, SA (GENISA) and the contractor an unjustified and disproportionate fine. All of this is coupled with the serious economic damage caused to the company and its contractors by the prolonged work stoppage.

A state company with high impact on the conditions that determine the economic development of the country, has agreed to intervention on the part of union workers in its institutional management in telecommunications and electricity.

EDITORIAL

How is it possible to reconcile the different and often conflicting interests between managing a state monopoly and a union, without affecting the higher interests of Costa Rican citizens?

Despite the agreement signed last December, authorities from the CEL say it reserves the right to activate in civil courts processes to collect compensation for alleged damages.

After ten years of international litigation by the Italian company ENEL for control of the geothermal station Enel Green Power El Salvador, where the Salvadoran State had everything to lose, in December 2014 an agreement was signed at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) which stated in Article 3 that: "The parties (the Salvadoran State and Enel) have agreed as a condition non precedent of the effects of the Framework Agreement, the final and irrevocable extinction of the civil action of the crime involving Enel Green Power (EGP) and Enel Green Power in El Salvador criminal proceedings number 171-A-2-13 in the Seventh Court of Peace and 133-2013-12 in the Seventh Court of Instruction, both of San Salvador, that will be extended to all natural persons who are accused of crimes in the same instance ... ".

The government has been informed that its handling of the conflict goes against constitutional principles demands have been made for it to impose its authority to end the blockade of the hydroelectric project.

From a statement issued by the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Panama:

After the signing of a contract between the government of Nicaragua and a norwegian company to explore for hydrocarbons, Costa Rica has noted that the award was made on disputed maritime areas in the International Court of Justice.

An article in Nacion.com reports that "... Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez said he prepared the letter to the company that received the rights to explore and exploit hydrocarbons in the Pacific coast, in an area that lacks clear boundaries between the Costa Rican and Nicaraguan territory."